Bank extends applications deadline

WESTPAC Fiji has extended the closing date for applications on its annual women and girls education grants for this year.

The bank announced the extension yesterday because of the devastation caused by the recent severe weather and Tropical Cyclone Josie.

Applications for the education grants, which were launched earlier last month, will now close on Friday June 8, 2018 at 5.00pm.

Westpac Fiji general manager Brett Hooker said they would like more women and girls to take advantage of these grants.

“With a lot of families still struggling to get their lives back to normality after the flooding, this extension will give the applicants ample time to put in their application,” Mr Hooker said in a statement yesterday.

Under the initiative, a total of nine grants under its Women and Girls Grants program which has been running since 2012.

Out of these nine grants, there would be three grants for each of the three categories — primary school, high school and tertiary students or adult worker wishing to return to study.

For applications to be considered for the grants, each applicant are required to write an essay: primary school 200 words or less, secondary 400 words or less and 600 words or less for tertiary students around the question “What can be done to remove barriers to women and girls progress?”

The successful grant recipients will receive funding to contribute towards their education costs.

For the primary school award, three grants by $400 each; for high school/secondary college — three grants by $1000 each; and for tertiary students/adult workers who wish to return to study, three grants by $2150 each.

Winners of the grants will be announced on July 2, 2018 in the local media.

“On behalf of Westpac, I take this opportunity to encourage the women and girls of Fiji to never give up, believe in yourself; take on the challenge and put in your application and continue pressing forward through the challenges and success will follow,” Mr Hooker said.

Women empowerment through education is one of Westpac’s key sustainability strategies and our aim with the education grants is to financially assist and encourage women and girls to take a positive step towards fulfilling their educational potential and we have witnessed that for girls, it helps with the cost of their schooling and for women it helps them to return to, or continue, tertiary study.